Single moms and successful sonsNew research conflicts with common beliefsBy Sharon JaysonGannett News Service

Conventional
wisdom is that boys who grow up without fathers are at greater risk of
problems, from doing poorly in school to substance abuse. So how does
that account for the high-profile successes of standouts such as Sen.
Barack Obama, Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and others who were reared
by single mothers?

Obama,
a U.S. senator from Illinois, is the Democratic presidential nominee.
Phelps won eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics. They - as well as
Tour de France-winning cyclist Lance Armstrong, Massachusetts Gov.
Deval Patrick and actor Benjamin Bratt - are just some of the
accomplished men who grew up in single-parent households for most or
all of their youth.

For
decades, researchers have said children from two-parent families do
better than those raised by a single parent. That's still true, they
say. But newer research pokes holes into that all-or-nothing approach,
says fatherhood expert Michael Lamb, a psychology professor at the
University of Cambridge in England.

"The
key point is yes, there is a risk," he said. "But it's not really a
risk inherent in the single-parent family, per se. You can't assume
that every child raised by a single parent is going to have
difficulties. The majority don't."

Lamb
said decades ago, researchers were concerned about risks to children,
and "their concerns were driven by a lot of cultural assumptions, which
led them to propose kids are better off in the traditional family.

"The evidence, on the whole, hasn't supported that, but the beliefs have persisted in society," he said.

Quality of relationships

Another expert on fatherhood,
sociologist Tim Biblarz of the University of Southern California, said
the evidence shows economics plays a significant role in the risk for
negative outcomes, such as poorer grades and lower educational
attainment, substance abuse or poor social adjustment.

"Those
who grow up with single mothers with adequate socioeconomic resources
tend to do well. The children of poor single mothers are more at risk,"
Biblarz said. "Many of the results that say that kids are at increased
risk for negative outcomes have to do with economics."

According
to the most recent data for 2007 from the U.S. Census, 8.4 million boys
under 18 were living with a single mother. That's 22 percent of all
boys in that age group in the United States.

Lamb
said children do better if they have a good relationship with the
in-home parent, as well as if the parents have low conflict; if the
parent has economic resources; and if children have individual
resilience to adverse circumstances.

"What's
important is not whether they are raised by one or two parents. It's
how good is the relationship with the parent, how much support they're
getting from that parent and how harmonious is the environment," he
said.

'Encourage their talents'

But Biblarz said the idea "that boys in particular need fathers in the way girls need mothers" doesn't hold true.

"I
can tell you there's almost no evidence supporting that," he said. "For
a variety of reasons, children who grow up with single fathers, for
example, are at higher risk than those who grow up with single mothers
for either sex."

In
the case of swimmer Phelps, mothers such as Debbie Phelps have the
right approach, says Peggy Drexler, author of the 2005 book "Raising
Boys Without Men" (Rodale Books, $23.95).

"Phelps
was born with a gift that his mother nurtured," said Drexler, an
assistant professor of psychology at Cornell University's Weill Medical
College in New York City.

Such
mothers "don't hold them back," she said. "They encourage their
talents, and drive and encourage independence and a sense of adventure."